A Monday Memory....

Apologies for the length of this post, but I wanted to share something that really touched me last week.

First, some background: Among the many items I purchased when I first joined the ranks of "Mothers" was a copy of Parent's Magazine.  One of my favorite columns was written by a woman named Elizabeth Berg.  Something about her words and wisdom struck a chord with me and I became a follower of her work.  She went on to write several books and novels over the years, many of which sit on my bookshelves. When I discovered she had a Facebook page, I quickly signed on.

Elizabeth (see, we are so close now that I call her by her first name!) shared a lovely story last week about her mother.  I found myself welling up, because her mother sounds so very much like my own, down to her age and her struggle with macular degeneration.  Like her, my mother too held a private dream of wanting to be a writer.  

Here is the post:
Elizabeth Berg
Author
https://www.facebook.com/bergbooks/posts/808521579239811

"Not long before my Dad died, he looked over at me with a kind of wonder in his eyes. "You got HER job," he said, referring to my mother.

My mother was and still is an avid reader. She also had aspirations of becoming a writer. She wrote for her school paper. After graduation from high school, she took a job at a radio station and it's possible she wrote for them. But then one day, at the back of a five and dime, next to a cage full of parakeets, she met a handsome, blue-eyed lieutenant who asked her if she might like to go out with him and that was that. All her writing talent went into writing notes for school absences, letters home to her family, and messages on Christmas cards.

Now she is 92 years old and her vision is failing. The stacks of books she used to keep on her bedside stand are gone. She uses a kindle with an extremely large font, and she listens to books on tape.

Last time I went to see her, she presented me with something she had, with great difficulty, written out on special paper with very wide lines. "I want to make sure you can read this," she said. "And then, maybe you can put it on Facebook. If it's good enough!"

I didn't have to read it to know I could put it on Facebook. I feel I have come to know the group of people who come to this page, and I know you will welcome her unedited words if only for thought and effort she put into writing them down.

And so, with no further ado:

FROM THE HEART by Marion Jeanne Loney Hoff

The Grinch did not steal Christmas. I did--you did--merchants in general (perhaps not entirely at fault) are the holiday thieves. Halloween goblins are still in evidence when the mad rush begins in the Christmas trees and decorations and Christmas cards. Christmas cards, which I loved to send and receive are being sent via Facebook, email, texting or punched out on a computer. No personal note or thought of the person receiving this card.
The Sears Christmas catalogue was an eagerly awaited piece of mail. Children of all ages--and some adults--turned each page. Initials appears on some pages. These were not gifts expected but rather something just suggestion to help you shop, they told me.
Christmas dinner seems to be much the same. Although for a bit of cash you can have it all cooked for you--and in some places for a bit more cash delivered right to your table.
You arrived at your place of worship early so you could sit in your favorite pew. Now in many places there are empty pews.
Now sit back in a quiet place. Maybe watching some Christmas lights or candles and from somewhere in your head comes this voice and you know the true reason for this season. The birth of the infant to a loving mother and father wrapped up snugly and placed in a stall in the stable.
Think again of all the cultures in this wide world. They too have their customs, their special holidays and traditions. May they all be kept with the joy, peace and respect they deserve. Then finally it may come: peace on earth. Good will to men."

How wise she is!  My absolute favorite lines are the ones I highlighted in red!!
And then Elizabeth came up with a brilliant idea!  At the end of the post, she asked that those of us who are her "friends" on Facebook send her mother a handwritten Christmas card.  Truth be told, I immediately went to my desk and wrote out a card.  In large handwriting, so she could read it a little easier, just the way I used to for my own mother, those last years of her life.

Since that post, Elizabeth has reported that her mother has received well over a hundred and forty cards (including mine and one from daughter #1 of her Basset Boys.)  As you can imagine, her mother is absolutely delighted!  Elizabeth is planning to arrange for a party for all the seniors in her mother's complex to gather and enjoy the cards with her.  Isn't that wonderful?

Maybe, just maybe, there are enough of us out there who believe as Marion does - that all of our traditions and special holidays MUST be preserved and passed on.  And we can do that by sending the cards, lighting the candles, telling the stories and encouraging our families and friends to do the same.